By Nikos Varlas/ varlas@eurohoops.net
Giorgos Printezis made history in Istanbul with his shot. He is already Euroleague champion, but he and Olympiacos need more. They are just one W away from winning the Greek championship, Printezis is playing the best basketball of his career and everything seems now possible, even the chance of him balling in the NBA.
Just after Sunday’s win againsτ Panathinaikos, his first though was simple: “We are 2-1, nothing else, nothing more. We have to take one more victory against one team that plays with very big experience. For sure it’s not easy. The happiest thing for my team now is that nobody is celebrating, everybody is concentrated to the next game. We have our heads down and we are waiting for the next practice”.
Ηe knows that the Greens will not go down without a fight: “The picture of Game 3 is not the real picture of Panathinaikos. They are a very experienced team with very experienced players. For sure when we play at their home court they are stronger and we have to be careful and concentrated for 40 minutes”.
His reaction about his personal performance is the one that it should be: “I don’t like to talk about myself. The number one thing for any player is the team. If the team helps you, if the coach supports you, then you have more chances to play better and help the team. Our team is like this, the coach made the team like this from the beginning of the season, to run, to have energy and this is good for me. I had a very long summer, I worked hard…”
And all this hard work may even give him a chance to cross the Atlantic. He knows that he made headlines in the US after winning the Euroleague, the New York Knicks have his NBA rights, but for the moment he tries to stay focused in the Greek finals: “It’s something that I would prefer not to talk about now. We have one more crucial game against Panathinaikos. I try to avoid all those things and just stay concentrated. For sure it’s a very big pleasure to be talked about by a team like New York Knicks, to see the newspapers write things like this”.
That means that he still has his own NBA dream? “For sure. It’s a dream not only for me, but for every player. Everybody wants to have the chance to play there and if an offer comes, why not?”